


Margaret

by TanstnBaymer



Category: North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV
Genre: Angst, F/M, First-name basis, Fluff, Victorian Attitudes, Victorian Norms, angsty angst, fluffy fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 22:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanstnBaymer/pseuds/TanstnBaymer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thornton-narrated drabble. What's in a name?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Margaret

"Margaret."

He had meant to say it with assurance, in a clear strong voice, but could not help half-whispering it. After all, that was the only way he had ever uttered her Christian name before-- in a whisper, to himself, in the dark. Or more often in a whisper in the privacy in his own head. He had felt foolish whenever he heard his voice saying her name. Like a ridiculous character in a novel, a lovestruck idiot. And hearing it aloud had only reminded him more forcefully of how unworthy he was of naming her so intimately, how absurd it was that he should think of this woman--who certainly never thought of him in terms other than dislike and unease--by her first name. 

How offended she might be, he had thought on such occasions, to know that he had so outrageously granted himself use of her first name without permission. How disgusted that the man whose proposal she had rejected even still thought of her as "Margaret," thought of her daily, thought of her in ways no gentleman should think of a lady...

But now John was staring into the eyes of that very lady, having just addressed her for the first time by the name he had thought he would never speak in front of her, the name he had thought no ears but his own should ever hear him pronounce. And those eyes were smiling at him. And that mouth was responding: 

"John."


End file.
